Lando Norris lapped 0.019 of a second quicker than Formula One championship leader Oscar Piastri as the McLaren pair finished one-two in first practice for the Hungarian Grand Prix on Friday.
Norris, 16 points behind his Australian teammate going into the last race before the August break, lapped the Hungaroring with a best time of one minute 16.052 seconds with the soft tyres on a sunny afternoon.
The Briton was on pole at the circuit last year in a race won by Piastri, his first victory in F1.
Ferrari's Charles Leclerc was third fastest, 0.217 off the pace, with Racing Bulls' French rookie Isack Hadjar in fourth.
Lewis Hamilton, winner a record eight times in Hungary, was fifth for Ferrari and suffered a big lock-up as he wrestled with the car. Oliver Bearman was sixth for Haas, ahead of Mercedes pair Kimi Antonelli and George Russell with Red Bull's reigning champion Max Verstappen ninth and Lance Stroll completing the top 10 for Aston Martin. Russell complained about his car's balance and said it was hard to turn. Verstappen's Japanese teammate Yuki Tsunoda was only 17th.
Brazilian Felipe Drugovich stood in for Fernando Alonso at Aston Martin, with the Spaniard suffering from back pain, and was 16th fastest.
Estonian Paul Aron also took Nico Hulkenberg's Sauber for the session and was last after having to stop before the midpoint of the session due to a technical problem.
McLaren's progress faster than Ferrari in Schumacher era: Stella
McLaren's rate of progress may be faster than Ferrari during their golden era with German Formula One great Michael Schumacher, team boss Andrea Stella said on Friday.
The Italian worked at Maranello with seven-times champion Schumacher as an engineer during that period but told reporters at the Hungarian Grand Prix that he had been surprised by McLaren's growth.
The Woking-based team won the constructors's title last season and are running away with both championships this year with Piastri and Norris fighting for the drivers crown.
McLaren have won 10 of 13 races so far and are a mighty 268 points clear of second second-placed Ferrari in the team standings. In 2023 they were fourth overall and in 2022 fifth.
"It's always difficult to compare across seasons," said Stella, who joined McLaren from Ferrari in 2015. "In this case, we are comparing across teams, and even myself, I was in a very different role, so my field of view, my perspective was very different. "But if I had to pick a couple of features of the journey that is happening here at McLaren, I would say the rate of progress that we have had in a couple of years is in itself pretty unique.
"And possibly the rate of progress itself was even faster than what we experienced at Ferrari in the very competitive times." Schumacher won five titles in a row between 2000-2004, with the last one a particularly dominant season and Ferrari winning 15 of 18 races.
Stella said McLaren had set out an ambitious programme when deciding how much effort to put into developing their car this season, with a new engine era coming in 2026 that could shake up the pecking order.
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